Seed-corn tester.



No. 863,474. PATENTED Ave; is, 1907.

c; E. TWAMLEY. SEED 001m TESTER.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 2, 1901.

4 sums-811mm.

23 wmz' y THE NORRIS PETERS C0,, wnsnmorou, n. c

msas m. PATENTED'AUG.13, 1907.

0. B. TWAMLBY.

SEED CORN TESTER.

APPLICATION FILED IANJZ, 1907.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

wing 16325;

rm: NORRIS PETERS co, WASHINGTON. n. c.

CLARK E. TWAMLEY, OF ALEXANDRIA, SOUTH DAKOTA.

SEED-CORN TESTER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 13, 1907.

Application filed January 2, 1907. Serial No. 350,463.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CLARK E. TWAMLEY, acitizen of the United States,residing in Alexandria, in the county of Hanson and State of SouthDakota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Seed-CornTesters, of which the following is a specification.

In Letters Patent of the United States, No. 830,383, granted to me Sept.4, 1906, I have shown an apparatus for testing seed corn to determinewhich ears contain good seed and strong germs, or a large percentage ofgood seed and strong germs, and which contain such a small percentage asto render them unprofitable for use.- In the apparatus shown in saidpatent, cribs are employed for holding the ears of corn in which theears may be kept ventilated and dry, properly measured and marked foridentification. In connection with the crib, I show in said patent agerminating apparatus provided with means for causing good seed togerminate quickly. This apparatus as shown, is provided with cups orreceptacles in which samples of seed corn from a number of ears areplaced, each cup being so marked that kernels of corn taken from acompartment in the crib bearing one number may be placed in agerminating cup bearing the same number and thus the value of theseveral ears of seed corn may be determined and recorded withoutconfusion.

The object of my present invention is to provide means for storing, on alarger scale, the ears of seed corn and for germinating selected kernelson a larger scale.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 is a perspective view of astorage house with my improved corn cribs arranged therein. Fig. 2 is afront elevation of such a house to which is added another house orcompartment in which the germinating apparatus may be located. Fig. 3 isa perspective view of a crib section which may be employed. Fig. 4 showsa front elevation of a numbered strip which may be added to the sectionto identify it. Fig. 5 shows a front elevation of one of the numberedstrips for identifying the compartments of the section. Fig. 6 is adetail view in elevation showing how the crib or crib section besuspended and moved from place to place. Fig. 7 is a perspective view ofa crib formed of two sections bolted together. Fig. 8 is a perspectiveview of a crib formed of 4 sections bolted together. Fig. 9 shows afront elevation of one of the numbered strips which may be employed foridentifying the compartments of the crib. Fig. 10 is a perspective viewshowing how the num bered strip or plate for marking the section may beattached thereto. Fig. 11 is a perspective view of my improvedgerminating apparatus. Fig. 12 is a detail view on a large scale inperspective showing the construction of one of the cup holders of thegerminating apparatus. Fig. 13 is a perspective view of one of thegerminating cups.

In my patent before mentioned, I have shown means for causing seed cornto germinate quickly, artificial heat being used in the apparatus,comparatively few germinating cups being employed and a relatively smallnumber of cribs for holding the ears of seed corn being used. I havefound that it is sometimes possible to cause the seed to germinatewithout the use of arti ficial heat, or the heat may be applied to aroom in which germinating cups are suitably supported. I have also foundthat a very large number of cars of corn may be held in cribs suitablydivided into compartments and suitably numbered for identification.

In Fig. 1 I have shown how the cribs for storing the ears of "seed cornmay be arranged. The house, A, may be of any suitable construction, butis preferably provided with doors and windows which may be thrown wideopen or closed tightly, as circumstances may require, it being desirableto keep the corn clean and dry but well ventilated. It will be observedthat the house, A, containsaserics of cribs, B, the details ofconstruction of which will be presently described, and that these cribsare supported by trolleys running on overhead tracks, C. I have showntwo series of cribs thus suspended with a space or passage-way betweenthem, so that the attendant may move between the two series and thecribs in each series are so arranged that a space may be left betweenthem for the attendant to enter or they may be moved along the track ineither direction, so that the attendant may go between any two of them.In this way access may be had to all the ears of corn in all thesections very conveniently.

In Fig. 3 I have shown a crib in which the frame is made of gas-pipe, b,crossed wires, I) and bracing strips, b", b and b There are 4 verticalgas-pipe frame pieces, b, 4 gas-pipe frame pieces, I) at the top and 4gas-pipe frame pieces, I), at the bottom. These are connected bycouplings, b each of which is suitably tapped at 3 places to receive thethreaded ends of the frame pieces. The wires, 1), are strunghorizontally and vertically to form compartments for supporting the earsof corn. In Fig. 3, the crib is shown as provided with 16 compartments,but of course a larger or smaller number may be employed. The bracingstrips, b serve not only to strengthen the frame of the crib, but thesebracing strips are formed with holes, 0, to receive bolts for connectingone section, B, with a similar section in the manner presentlydescribed. The strips, b are formed with holes at c, to receive boltsfor connecting these strips to the arms, D, projected downwardly fromthe trolley, E, which is adapted to run on the track, C, as illustratedin Figs. 1 and G. The connection between the arms, D, and the braces, bis a detachable one for the purpose hereinafter dcscribed. The bracingstrips, o at the bottom of the crib, are also formed with holes, 0 toreceive bolts, when it is desired to connect the section, B, such asshown in Fig. 3, with another section below it. The trolley track, 0,may be of the form shown in Figs. 1 and 6. As this is of well knownconstruction, it need not be further described. Each section of the cribshould be marked for identification. This may be done by using a plateor strip, F, such as shown in Fig. 4-, provided with pins or studs, f,adapted to fit into holes f. These may be formed in the front ends ofthe bracing strips, b The several compartments of the cribs should alsobe marked for identification and this may be done by employing numberedstrips or plates, G', such as shown in Fig. 5. One such strip may beused for numbering all of the compartments in one horizontal row, forinstance, the strip, G, shown in Fig. 5 may be used for numbering the 4compartments at the top of the section, B. A similar strip bearing thenumbers 5, 6, 7 and 8, may be used for numbering the second horizontalrow of compartments and so on. These strips may be formed withapertures, g, at their ends, adapted to receive studs, g, suitablyplaced on the front of the frame. In this way, the strips may be madedetachable and the strips used for numbering one crib or one sectionthereof, may afterwards he used for numbering or identifying the severalcompartments in other cribs or other sections.

In Fig. 7, I have shown two crib sections, B, similar to that shown inFig. 3, bolted together side by side. It will be observed that the twocrib sections, B, in Fig. 7, are of precisely the same construction, thebracing strips, b being placed side by side and securely fastenedtogether by bolts, H, and they are both suspended from the same trolley,E. The arms, D, are of such length and are so arranged that theystraddle the space between the adjacent end bracing strips, h in the twocribs and they also are so arranged that they exactly bridge the spacebetween the two bracing strips, b in one section of the crib. In thisway, the same arms, D, may be used for supporting one crib section 01'two crib sections placed side by side. When two crib sections areconnected in the manner shown in Fig. 7, they may be considered twosections and so marked by proper plates, F, of the kind shown in Fig. 4,or they may be considered one section and a proper section marker, F,such as shown in Fig. 4, may be placed in the middle part of the unitedsections. In like manner, numbered plates or strips, such as shown inFig. 5, may be employed for numbering the several compartments in one ofthe sections, 13, shown in Fig. 7, or a numbered plate or strip of twicethe length may be employed for identifying the compartments in eachhorizontal row in the united sections.

In Fig. 8, I have shown how 4 sections, 13, may be connected in'asimilar manner, bolts, H, being employed to unite the upper sections, B,with the lower sections. The 4 sections may be considered separatesections and identified in the manner before described, or the 4 cribsmay be considered one section, in which case a section marking plate, F,such as illustrated, may be used and located at the middle top portionof the crib and numbered strips or plates, G, reaching from one side ofthe crib to the other, may be employed, one such numbered strip beingused for each horizontal series of compartments. In Fig. 8, the unitedcrib sections constitute a crib having 64 separate compartments.

The numbered strip shown in Fig. 9, is designed to be placed on the cribacross the lower horizontal series of compartments. A larger number ofcrib sections may be united to each other in the same way, and, ifdesired, all suspended from the same trolley. It will be understood thateach compartment of the crib is only about 2 inches square and thereforeeach section need only be 8 or 10 inches square, so that it may bedesirable to connect a larger number of sections together thanillustrated in the drawings. Of course each section may be, if desired,provided with a larger number of compartments, but in order to obtain arigid structure, it is desirable that the frame of each section shouldnot be made of very great dimensions. The cribs should be so suspendedand arranged that the attendants may easily reach the ears of corn inall the compartments. I

In Fig. 11, I have shown the means which I employ for holdinggerminating cups in which the kernels of corn selected from the severalears are placed and held until they are tested. In my patent beforementioned, I have shown the germinating cups arranged in a germinatingchamber provided with a lamp, but when testing seed cord on a largescale, a room may be artificially heated to promote germination, or insome cases, the temperature and condition of the atmosphere are properfor germinating purposes, so that the cups may be supported in a framein any suitable room, compartment or chamber. It is important, however,that the cups should be classified and marked in such manner that thekernels in each cup will be so marked for identification that theparticular ear of corn from which they were taken may be easilyascertained. The supporting frame, L, is constructed mainly of gas-pipe.The vertical end pieces, Z, are connected at top and bottom by crosspieces, Z, both of gas-pipe, and crossed bracing strips, L, may be usedto strengthen the ends of the frame. Vertical pipes, M, arrangedsuitable distances apart, both at front and rear of the frame, areconnected by couplings, m, with horizontally arranged pipe sections, Mand to the vertical pipes, M, and the pipes, Z, are attached angleirons, N, which support the cup holders, 0. These cup holders areconstructed in the manner shown in Fig. 12, having front and rear ends,0, connected by longitudinal strips, 0, which are preferably flanged attheir upper ends, 0 The flanges, 0 at the opposite sides of the holders,rest on the angle irons, N, and are free to slide thereon. Thegerminating cups, P, are of the construction shown in Fig. 13,consisting of a box or receptacle having flanges, p, adapted to rest onthe flanges, 0 as shown in Fig. 12 and other flanges, p; which may beused as handles and which are suitably numbered.

In Fig. 11 I have shown 24 cup holders and each of these holders isadapted to receive 64. cups. Of course the number of cups and the numberof holders may be varied, but the number of cups in each holder in thisinstance may correspond with the number of compartments employed in thecrib illustrated in Fig. 8, there being 64 such compartments as beforestated. In Fig. 8, the crib made up of 4 sections before specified ismarked section 1 and there is a cup holder in the frame, L, markedsection 1 which should contain 64 cups. In like manner, there is a cupholder corresponding with every crib and each cup holder contains anumber of cups corresponding with the number of compartments in eachcrib. The cups are all consecutively numbered and the compartments ineach crib are consecutively numbered. It will thus be understood thatwhen grains of corn are taken from an ear in any compartment, of thecrib, they may be placed in a correspondingly numbered cup in acorrespondingly numbered section. In this way hundreds of ears of cornmay be conveniently stored and arranged and easily tested withoutconfusion. I have shown 24 cup holders in Fig. 11." Each one of theseholders may contain 64 cups and there should be 24 cribs correspondingwith the24 cup holders. In this way corn from 1,536 ears may be testedwithout confusion and a proper record made, so that at any time it canbe ascertained just what are the germinating properties of any ear ofcorn contained in any compartment of the cribs.

I have given a concrete example of an arrangement of cribs and cupholders, but it is obvious that in accordance with my present inventiona very much larger number of cars of corn may be stored, classified andtested with great facility.

I claim as my invention 2- 1. The combination of a germinator comprisinga frame, a series of detachable cup-holders supported therein, eachbearing a section number, a series of cups contained in each cupho]derand which are consecutively numbered, two series of suspended cribs witha passageway between them and which are movable in each series towardsand from each other to permit access to the several cribs, said cribsbeing numbered correspondingly with the sections of the germinator andeach crib being divided into ventilated compartments, each of which isnumbered to correspond with a cup or compartment in the correspondingsection of the germinator.

2. The combination with a germinating apparatus of two series ofsuspended cribs with a passageway between them, each of said cribs beingdivided into a series of compartments, all of which are numbered and thecribs in each series being movable towards and from each other to permitaccess to the numbered crib compartments.

3. The combination of two crib sections, each comprisinga gas-pipeframe, crossed wires connected therewith and bracing strips at the sideand detachable connections between the adjacent side bracing strips.

4. The combination of two crib sections, each comprising a gas-pipeframe, crossed wires for forming compartments in the section and sideand top bracing strips, detachable connections between adjacent sidebracing strips of the two sections, a trolley and arms carried by thetrolley and connected to the top bracing strips in the two cribsections.

5. The combination of a set of crib sections. each com prising a gaspipeframe, crossed wires attached thereto for forming compartments therein,top, side and bottom bracing strips and connections between the bracingstrips for attaching the sections together.

6. The combination of a crib having a series of compartments, a stripdetachably connected with the crib and having a series of numbers toidentify the compartments.

. a germinating cup holder and a series of detachable germinating cupstherein marked correspondingly with the numbered strip.

7. The combination of a crib having compartments arranged vertically andhorizontally, a numbered strip for each horizontal row of compartmentsand having numbers successively arranged thereon, a section markercarried by the crib, a germinating cup holder having a section numbercorresponding with said crib and germinating cups in the holderconsecutively numbered correspondingly with the numbers of the cribcompartments.

8. The combination of a crib having a series of coin partinents, a stripdetachably connected with the crib and having a series of numbers toidentify the compartments and a germinator having a series ofgerminating com partments marked correspondingly with the numberedstrip.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name.

CLARK E. TWAMLEY.

Witnesses:

W. H. REIFERS, M. .T. MANnY.

